Columbo, Sri Lanka, Monday, 03/18/2024

Today we wake and have Sri Lankan food for breakfast. I order a Sri Lankan Omelette and I am told it is spicy. I say, “Bring it on”. They make it and I eat it, and the Maitre Dei is amazed. I don’t mention that it is not too spicy and that all they did was add serrano peppers. Not impressed but I don’t tell them. We have a Tuk Tuk ride (pronounced took took) scheduled to pick us up at 10AM. They come early but they wait for us.

We check out of the hotel and they hold our luggage for us. We get in the Tuk Tuk and embark on a 4 hour tour of the city. Our guide, Mumbasa, tells us to call him ‘Rikki’. Rikki takes us around the city to various sights, including Budda Temples, the shopping district, Parlament buildings and famous landmarks. Our cameras are in their happy place!

Rikki takes us inside an historical government building where we see where leaders used to meet and make decisions. There are even manikins depicting a meeting of leaders. So Elee sits down and signs the guest book as if she’s signing a law!

When we’re in the marketplace, we marvel at the selection of vegetables, foods and spices! If we could only have something like this at home! We would shop here always! The selections of normal and out of the ordinary fruits and vegetables is amazing! I hope some of these photos do it proud! There are even dried fish available!

Then it’s back in the Tuk Tuk and off to another temple that doesn’t fail to amaze! We even see a Golden Budda that claims to have Budda’s actual hair attached to it! Not sure my camera catches this, but I’ll try!

After countless places to photograph and countless kilometers of Tuk Tuk riding in the exciting crowded streets, hearing the horns blast and being able to reach out and touch the vehicles next to us (but we don’t! Keep your hands, arms and cameras inside the vehicle at all times!), we arrive at a restaurant for lunch. As we walk inside, we hear familiar voices teasing us, “Don’t seat them here!” But they don’t mean it as they are some of our shipmate friends just having a bit of light humor!

We sit with a couple ladies from the ship (there are dozens of ship tours doing the same thing as we are doing on our own)

We are served Sri Lankan dishes that we can’t describe but are delicious! Ship food will be bland compared to this! Our guide tries to tell us what the dishes are but we don’t really comprehend them. All we know is that I say I want spicy (and get it) and Elee says she only wants medium spicy but she says she got more spice than she wanted (but she doesn’t complain and scoffs it down!)

Then it is back to our hotel and Rikki waits for us to get our luggage. He then takes us to our ship, but there is a miscalculation and we end up walking most of a mile (with our bags) to actually get to the ship. But we get there, a little worse for wear and check back onto the ship. Home for a while.

We head to a bar and get cool drinks to offset the 37 degree Celcius (100 degrees F) temperatures of the day. We meet old friends again in the Botanical Bar and visit a while before we all agree we need showers after being out in the heat of the day! So we head our separate ways and agree that anyone that wants to go back into town for dinner will meet in the bar at 6PM.

So Elee and I go to our room and I take a nap while Elee showers. Then I take my shower. I feel invigorated! I tell Elee I plan to go into town for dinner. She thinks about it and says she’ll join us. So we all meet in the bar and we head into town to a restaurant someone has spotted called the ‘Lighthouse Gallery’.

Dinner is fabulous (at least to me!) but a couple people claim it is ‘too spicy’. I end up inhaling a friends soup as it is to die for delicious! It seems I am the only one to truly enjoy the spicy foods. But the cold local beer (kept cold by a bucket of ice brought to us) calms the spicy tones just enough and we all enjoy.

Our taxi takes us back to the ship and we resume our normal activities like bar games. I also step out on deck and get a few shots of the “Lotus Tower” that can be seen from the ship as it changes colors! I join a group with a friend and play a card game called ‘Up or Down’. Fun night. I get eliminated halfway through but it is all fun!

Goodnight all!